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Monday, January 10, 2011

Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread with Streusel Topping

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I usually keep a loaf or two of this bread in the freezer. While it's a wonderful addition to a leisurely weekend breakfast, I actually keep it on hand to serve at meetings or morning coffees when I have no time to bake. The bread has much to commend it. It's delicious, easy to prepare and cheap. If you do a lot of volunteer work, and are responsible for the "and" part of morning coffee, cost can be important. This bread can be made for about $3 a loaf and it freezes well. It's the type of bread that old-times called a "race track" because of the tracks and spiral that form when the dough is rolled and shaped. I've kept the fillings here to an absolute minimum. Feel free to improvise and add or subtract ingredients to suit your own taste. Because they go on rather than in the bread dough, precise quantities are not as important as they might otherwise be. I hydrate and drain my raisins before sprinkling them on the dough. I usually soak them in orange or apple juice but I've been known to use dark rum. It adds flavor and helps to keep the bread moist. I also use mace in this bread. Mace is a spice made from the waxy red covering which covers nutmeg seeds. The flavor is similar to that of nutmeg. Used in small quantities it adds subtle flavor to baked goods. Mace can be found in the spice aisle of most large grocery chains and it is available online from spice purveyors such as Penzy's. If you are unable to find it , use nutmeg or replace it with additional cinnamon. I think the bread looks exceptionally good and while there are four steps to its construction, each step is very easy to do. If you plan to freeze the loaf, hold the glaze and apply it just before you serve the bread. The bread tends to stale quickly, so eat or freeze it the day it's made. I know that those of you who try this loaf will love it. Here's the recipe.

Directions:1) Stir yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar into 1/4 cup of warm milk. Let sit until mixture begins to foam.2) Combine reserved 1/4 cup sugar with 3-3/4 cups flour, salt and 3 tablespoons butter in a mixing bowl. Stir in yeast mixture and reserved 1-1/4 cup warm milk with a wooden spoon or your hands. Continue to stir until dough forms a ball.3) Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface to rest a few minutes. If kneading dough with a dough hook, wash and dry mixing bowl before placing dough back in the bowl. Knead dough by hand or on lowest setting of mixer until it takes on a silky quality, about 4 minutes. If dough is too sticky, add additional flour. Dough is sufficiently kneaded when indentation made by pressing 2 fingers into dough springs back. Allow to rest for several minutes.4) Butter inside of a clean, dry bowl. Place dough in bowl, and turn to coat all sides with butter. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 to 2 hours.5) Punch dough down and transfer to a floured surface. Knead for 2 or 3 minutes, adding additional flour only as needed. Roll dough out into a rectangle about 8 by 16 inches. Brush dough with melted butter (saving excess for application of streusel). Sprinkle with cinnamon, mace, sugar and raisins. Starting at a short end, roll dough up tightly and tuck ends under. Place in a butter 9 x 5 x 3-inch pan, seam side down. Covered with plastic wrap and let rise until dough rises above edge of pan, about 40 to 60 minutes.6) Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine flour and brown sugar in a bowl. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter till mixture resembles coarse crumbs.7) Brush risen loaf with melted butter and slash down the middle. Sprinkle with crumb mixture, pressing in if necessary. Bake for 45 minutes, or until loaf makes a hollow sound when tapped.8) Remove from pan and let cook on a wire rack for at least 2 hours before cutting.9) Whisk together confectioners' sugar, milk and vanilla extract in a bowl. Drizzle over top of finished cakes and let set before serving. Yield: 1 loaf.

mary, shall make this one day..btw, what is maze? can i leave that out? i've made the apple lady cake using your recipe, it was very good..when i get it posted, shall let you know. Have a wonderful day!

Your timing with this one could not be more perfect! Just the other day I told my husband NOT to pick up raisin bread from the grocery store (my kids love it) b/c I decided it was time for us to begin making our own bread! I picked up a nice bread pan yesterday and now need to go get yeast. This will probably be my first bread! THANKS!

That is a beautiful, plumb loaf! I'm getting much better at keeping bread in the freezer to have on hand. I like the addition of mace - it's a little different flavor profile than some more typical spices.

I think this would also add a real treat alongside the butternut squash soup I made yesterday. It's always comforting to know that something such as this is residing in the freezer for those moments when one needs to serve a group on short notice.

Oh delightful! I never would have thought to soak my raisins in rum...which is such an inspired idea. I am going to attempt this the next time I make cinnamon swirl bread. Thank you for sharing your recipe with me. I hope you are having a happy and warm Monday. It is cold here in Austin!

I cannot begin to tell you how fantastic that bread looks! I enjoy the simple toppings and can imagine this treat going perfectly with coffee. Thank you for your wonderful comment on my blog, I am so glad you found it so I could find yours. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts! I can't wait to see more Mary, thank you.

okay. cinnamon raisin swirl bread, i LOVE. it's one of my favorite things to eat, for obvious reasons. sneaking some streusel on top is (sadly) something i've never considered doing, but it's the best idea i've come across so far this year. yes, the year is young, but this is truly phenomenal, mary--bravo!

Mary-First of all thank you for the link. Secondly, your bread looks delicious and I am thrilled that you used mace--not many people do. It adds such a warm and subtle spice. I have a cake recipe that I want to share that has mace, but that is my only recipe that uses mace. I will have to give your recipe a go to use up some of my mace. Thank you for sharing the recipe. Your blog is lovely!

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